Y’all are gonna be pretty much on your own this weekend, as it is alumni weekend and a bunch of my Alpha Sig brothers are in town raising hell. My house is going to look like a MASH unit in the morning, but instead of head and chest wounds, it’ll be liver damage. Big bbq tomorrow for about 30 people, and I got a pork shoulder the size of Rush Limbaugh’s thigh rubbed down and ready to smoke, some Piedmont sauce waiting in the fridge, as well as 10 lbs of ground beef, 48 hot dogs, and 30 chicken legs. It’s gonna be a good one.

Watch it rain.

Made some ceviche, orzo salad with artichoke and black olives and oil and vinegar, a corn/jalapeno salad, and crabcakes for the early folks, and they are all swilling old Granddad like they are 20. I’m sticking to wine.

At one point, we had a very depressing moment, as my one of my brothers was talking about his new transition trifocals. Two decades ago it would be all about beer bongs, now it is discussions about knee and shoulder surgery, trifocals, and where the kids are going to college. We all are uniformly distraught about the death of MCA.

I’ve got the answer for the liver damage, but you won’t want to hear it. I’m just about halfway through a two week liver detox diet and as tough as it’s been, it’s remarkable what you feel like when you do it. I feel like I’m going to float away, and last night my whole body tingled right down to the fingertips. That’s for another time.

Getting old does suck, but the alternative is worse. Life’s a blessing so have a blast.

Sounds like a good one john, enjoy the weekend, but could you recreate that frat picture you posted a few months ago, please?
I was really taken aback, shocked, by the mca news. Made my sons listen to the beastie boys all the way up I95 from dc to nj today. They are abed now, but im going outside to listen to pauls boutique. damn im saddened by this.

Congrats! My big test is tomorrow at the annual Derby party thrown by a Louisville native who makes the best. mint juleps. evah. I’m thinking if I even so much as smell one it will spin my world round. Sad to say, cuz it’s one of those wonderful once a year treats I’ve always highly anticipated.

20 years late, but I walk with all the other seniors at Guilford College and get my geology degree. I just saw my end of term grades also…B- in Calculus II and an A- in French Revolution and Napoleon history.

@Redshift: Years ago there was an old lady who who rode the same bus I did. She was a little out of it and every time she got the bus, she’d tell someone “Don’t get old.” How I wished I could ask her “do you have a way to do that? Cause the only option I know of I don’t want to name”.

I hope it’s one of those weekends were John actually stays away and return Sunday night to some BS that has gone unchecked, and we have someone get banned and all the commenters generally getting angry with each other, and we spend the first half of the week getting yelled at by John. Why do I hope this? Because he always goes softy in the end, and puts up Tunch pics to smooth it all over.

The aches and pains do suck, but on the other hand, it is much easier for me to focus on things that matter. After spending a life worrying about everything under the sun, the serenity of that makes up for the loss of physical youth. at least for me.

Two decades ago it would be all about beer bongs, now it is discussions about knee and shoulder surgery, trifocals, and where the kids are going to college. We all are uniformly distraught about the death of MCA.

My bruise from yesterday’s bike accident blossomed quite impressively, so I spent my day at work going around the office saying, “Wanna see something gross?”

The funny part is, I don’t think a single person said no.

(Short version for those who missed it: a kid on a BMX bike collided with me as I was pedaling home from work yesterday. Cocoa is fine, but I have a nasty bruise and sore ribs where the handlebars hit me.)

It’s a very strict diet. 6 days of only fruits and vegetables – no salt, sugar, grain, nuts, caffeine, alcohol. You can cook with monounsaturated oil, and use spices and herbs but no salt. Olive oil and lemon or vinegar only for salad dressing.
Then 5 days of adding a little grain like brown rice, millet, oats, quinoa, buckwheat. Unsalted rice cakes is the big deal. Then 3 days of adding in nuts, legumes and a little protein in the form of salmon and tofu. In a million years I never thought I could do it but I have religiously because it’s supervised by the local alternative medicine clinic who provide a shopping list and menus, and group meetings during the time, and it’s been everything as advertised.

ETA: Start every morning with a liver flush also too. Interesting process – primes the pump so to speak. You can use the Master Cleanse (google it) or tbsp of olive oil, lemon juice and water to make 1/2 cup of mixture to glug down.

One of my friends at work is in recovery and doing well (she has her 5-year chip and is well on her way towards 10) and it seems to amuse and reassure her somehow when I talk about things like the margarita I threw away without finishing because it was too sweet. It’s like getting a dispatch from another planet for her.

Earlier this evening I had happy hour for a few neighbors and it was really nice. My side neighbors’ parents are from Puerto Rico and the neighbors across the street are both from Columbia. It was an interesting mix. Another set are long time GA residents who fear the illegals but politics didn’t come into play fortunately. Instead of pork, I made chicken bbq on rolls which is much faster and just as tasty. I also had vegie rolls and roast beef sandwiches along with a fruit, vegie and cheese tray. In honor of cuatro de mayo I had guacamole and chips. Of course, happy hour wouldn’t be complete without desert so I had brownies.

. Two decades ago it would be all about beer bongs, now it is discussions about knee and shoulder surgery, trifocals, and where the kids are going to college.

You kids are adorable. Complain to me when you have to psych yourself up every time you need to take a leak and the pressing question at the beginning of your day is what limb or organ is going to hurt worst.
Seriously, It sounds like you have a great weekend planned and I hope you have a ball.

I start next week on getting my act together to put in for my post grad work at either UNC Chapel Hill or NC State for Fall 2013, depending on who can accomodate my physical disability (geology demands a lot of field work..period…and I can generally get around but I am not going to be able to do 20 mile hikes in Iceland)

I actually had a sense of disbelief when I found out I had passed Calculus II (and thereby graduated) and even passed with a B-. I certainly felt like cheering…but I think I just stared at the computer screen in shock :D

Aging has its benefits. I live at the foot of a mile-long hill that ascends the Palisades at a 10-percent grade. Every day when I reach the top during my bike commute to NYC, I marvel… sorta … that I can still do this in my forties. I’ve even stopped “counting” the days till I no longer can do it–my low gear is a 34×25; I can go lower, and probably will.

Mitt now says he was for keeping Grenell. So… he’s ineffectual? He can’t even command his own campaign staff? He was against hanging Grenell out to dry before he was for it? Can anybody over there play this game?

The two calc teachers I had were awesome. I just have a hard time with math and I get a bit intimidated by it. The first half of calc II was fine, because I don’t have that much difficulty with integration methods (trig substitution, integration by parts etc)

The second half had Taylor series, power series and the like and that just lost me in the fog. Trying to figure out the nth derivitive of something with three factorals in it just made me want to scream…

Geologists rock!

I saw something about field geologists aboyt 20 years ago that made me laugh where a pilot was talking about how…:

He always carries a little book with them and write stuff down about all those rocks like they was important, and if he loses the book he looks like nobody had fed him for a week! He gets rained on and sunburned and the critters are always biting him…I don’t know why anybody would want to be a geologist!

Obviously, that huge menu is going to require a staggering of the dishes most of the day with various divertissements for the guests and regular replenishings of the ales and wines. A regular English style fete, in fact.

At one point, we had a very depressing moment, as my one of my brothers was talking about his new transition trifocals. Two decades ago it would be all about beer bongs, now it is discussions about knee and shoulder surgery, trifocals, and where the kids are going to college. We all are uniformly distraught about the death of MCA.

Tonight at my daughter’s 17th birthday party, I told them about my workday: Hired a couple people today. One of them was born a month after I graduated high school. She’s 27.

None of it even seems mathematically possible. I’m still passing for my 20s.

As much as you piss me off a lot of the time with your politics and I have no problem calling you all sorts of nasty names, I find it almost impossible to dislike you when you post everyday just living life stuff like this. I think you would be an interesting person to have a beer with someday even though that will never happen.http://ll-media.tmz.com/2009/0.....3493-1.jpg

Since I’m still up and talking about my neighbors coming over, see comment @ 45, the gal from Columbia asked about my kitchen table because she recognized it as being really old. It was an old refractory table we found in the basement of a house we purchase 35 years ago and dates from 1885. She was the first person who recognized that. It was kinda cool.

So, with the presidential election looming in exactly six months, I would like to issue a challenge to you both: Give at least one campaign speech, on a substantive policy issue, lasting at least 15 minutes, that does not contain a single factual error or misstatement.

20 years late, but I walk with all the other seniors at Guilford College and get my geology degree. I just saw my end of term grades also…B- in Calculus II and an A- in French Revolution and Napoleon history.

Congratulations. Hope you celebrate this achievement appropriately. And be sure to top it off geology style with a Scotch.

@Mickey: That was stupid. If Gates ever took time to watch Law and Order he would have known never, ever step outside. Unfortunately, he was one of the others who didn’t watch Law and Order but good news he educated us.

Congrats, celticdragonchick. Voted yet? My accomplishment for the evening was tracking down early voting info for an amendment one opponent whose county had for some reason put that information behind a password protected site. I’m not kidding about that! I found it elsewhere and now I’ve helped a first time voter. There are several anti signs in my neighborhood in the yards of neighbors I don’t know & I’ve decided if this fails I’m inviting them all for cocktails & socializing next weekend. There are a couple of for signs too, but it tends to be older folks in my ’60s neighborhood, so no surprise.

I haven’t, but that’s because plain ol’ Excedrin usually does the trick now that my nasal allergies are under control with Nasonex. It’s been a really weird week, weather-wise, so that’s where the migraine issues are coming from — it turns out that sharp changes in the weather are a very common migraine trigger. Who knew?

You think it’s bad now. Wait about 20-25 years. Still young enough to remember that you didn’t always feel like you are rapidly disintegrating into ashes but just old enough not to remember exactly what that felt like.

Well, I almost had one… or would have without my helmet. Several years ago I fractured my neck mountain biking, and my helmet had a deep, pointy crushed-in spot right over my forehead. Probably would have been a right good lobotomizing!
But even if I had not had my helmet on that day, I can’t imagine voting for this guy. Maybe if I were a rich man…

ETA: I would like to think that if I were a rich man, I would still give enough of a shit about everybody else to not vote Mitt…

@Omnes Omnibus:
Two friends to separate gun accidents before I was out of grade school. I really need to keep them in mind when I am failing to make best use of my time on Earth, to spur me to stop fucking dicking around.

@Omnes Omnibus:
Oh I wasn’t trying to say not aging is better, just that aging is a bed of roses, but with the thorns still on.
And yes I’ve lost a lot of people that I grew up with. People in Vietnam, only my sister is left in my immediate family, mom was the last one of her generation and she went 3-4 weeks ago(94, she had a good run).
Just went to a gathering of people I used to race with nearly 40 years ago, nobody talked about those who are gone. And there are a few.

@Jebediah: I think it’s an okay song, but it’s not the best on Licensed to Ill, and I’ve heard it way too many times. Sure Shot and Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun (gawd I love that drum sample) and Jimmy James are my favorites.

@Ruckus: The was some maudlin shit going on in this thread, so I used your comment to try to move things in a happier direction. Fuck whining. I was born when I was born and if I had not been I would not be who I am now.

@Jebediah:
18 Years ago I got hit by a truck head on. I wasn’t in a car. I was laying in the street after getting knocked down by a coyote while riding my motorcycle. So two accidents for the price of one. As I was flying through the air I thought, “Shit this is going to hurt”. When the truck hit my head with the bumper I went under the truck and it became pitch black. I wasn’t sure if that meant I was dead or just that it was dark out. Dark won.
Moral is that I walked away with no new discernible brain damage. However I have other injuries which remind me every day about it.

@Ruckus:
I’m sorry you had the accident, and I’m sorry you still feel it, but gott-damn that is a great story! It starts with such an implausibility and just gets better. The kind of thing that sometimes peeves me in movies because of the unrealism. And you get to have that as one of your own stories!
sorry for my ridiculosity but I am kind of jealous of that story…

@Ruckus: Okay, fine. One of the two assistants I hired three weeks ago, told me this week that I was old. In the context of a music discussion… She said that Dashboard Confessional was similar to Oasis. I objected. Today, she mentioned that I was older than her dad. I had never mentioned my age; she guessed. She guessed high and wrong. The thing is that she was right; I am older than her dad. Weird thought.

My bruise from yesterday’s bike accident blossomed quite impressively, so I spent my day at work going around the office saying, “Wanna see something gross?”

Yesterday, our twenty-pound Hellbitch started a fight with the fifteen-pound Underdog, who promptly tried to climb in my lap for the height advantage. Today I have two huge matching purple-brown bruises on my thigh, and I don’t even get to show them off to unsuspecting strangers!

(Okay, the Spousal Unit was pretty impressed. And the “good” news is — bruises from inhibited bites is better than puncture wounds, which is why I spent last May Day in the hospital, so: progress. FWIW… )

@BillinGlendaleCA: I am okay. She is maybe 22 and will be graduating from college next week. She is enthusiastic about her job and willing to work long hours for public service wages. I was just shocked by the statement. Most people don’t think I am older than my mid-30s(humble brag by a 47 year old).

You’re goddamn right getting old sucks majorly…My spouse failed a cardiac stress test on Wednesday and was scheduled to go in for cardiac cath next Wednesday. However, this evening when she got home from work she was having chest discomfort. We tend to take this seriously since she had a stent put in six years ago. So boogie on down to the hospital where her cardiologist practices…walk in the ER door, go to the desk, describe her symptoms and the stress test she failed on Wednesday, and whoa, sonofabitch, these people are swooping in like vampires on virgins. Amazing, two minutes from walking in the door til they had her in a critical care bed and are doing all the stuff.

To make a long story shorter, they decided they didn’t need to do the catheterization this evening and she can come home tomorrow, but she kicked me out. I can’t understand why, all I did was to tell her that if she has a heart attack I’m divorcing her because next weekend is senior prom and I am not equipped to deal with getting my daughter ready for the prom…finish, end, period, so she had just better get well.

Consequently I have resorted to serious measures to calm my shattered nerves and am playing the BoDeans really loud, since the daughter is at my sister-in-law’s and my spouse is in a major metro hospital…dammit.

@Jebediah:I am kind of jealous of that story…
Would you like to take the results? I’d be glad to hand them off. Actually I’d be ecstatic. I’d like just one day without the reminder of that story that took much longer to tell than to experience.

@Omnes Omnibus:
I’m a number of years older than both of you. As in a bunch of numbers. Zero years don’t mean anything either except that the more of them you have the less you need to be reminded about them.

@BillinGlendaleCA: It will be my high school 30th. I’ve just started to find gray in the last couple of years. I almost wish for more so people don’t assume I dye it. My younger brother who was turning gray by 30 tells me I am an asshole for say things like that. It makes me smile.

I say this as an alumni of a fraternity, and a member that was educated and influenced by a fraternity for most of my college education. In fact, it helped a lot, in studying and preparing for my career. Fraternities are part of the boiler-plate for conservatism with college students.

A friend in my orienteering club had a massive heart attack the weekend before Thanksgiving. He is in his early 60s, was skinny as a rail,and a strong runner; ranked 11th in the M60+ class in the USA. He had a transplant two months ago. Last weekend he was out on the trails again for the first time, walking, but five months ago we weren’t sure he’d ever be out of the hospital.

@Omnes Omnibus:
I make it a point never to argue with 22 yr old people. They know everything and as I’m old I’ve forgotten everything. When I was young I was told to respect my elders because they had experience and working memories. I got older and found out why they used to tell me that. And I still get no respect. But look at Mittens, he’s old and he gets no respect either. He’s got plenty of money, maybe it’s because he has the sense of roadkill.